i uploaded two photos. one is called "slightly past prime". i thought it was a nice one with good subject, color and texture. evidently the group did not agree...........the other one is (rework) "fragrant star gardenia. it was received in a blah way. i'm beginning to doubt myself. those of you who "know" me know that i want to share really good photographs with the group so please give me some tips in improving them. thanks.

~walks by with thumb tacks in hand~

What's this??

slightly past prime .

~reaches in for more thumb tacks~

fragrant star gardenia .

OUCH!! Dang, stuck myself!! You owe me!! 8~O

Slightly past prime: I love the bold colour in that one. Maybe the aphids (I think that's what they are) detracted from the beauty of the flower for some voters.

Fragrant star gardenia: I would be satisfied with a 70 for most of my photos...

I like the composition and subject; the main thing I noticed is that the sharpness of the centre of the flower is lacking. This might be due to poor sunlight, or perhaps the white petals (I find my autofocus has a hard time with anything white) or perhaps the focus wasn't in the right place. I think most likely the lighting was poor (probably overcast). I like to see razor sharp detail in that type of macro shot. It's also possible that some voters didn't find the subject interesting/unusual enough, but as I said, 70 is an above average score and not to be scorned...

thanks, sam. for your good constructive ideas. i love that gardenia and it is somewhat new to me. i guess i just get a little more carried away than other viewers.

One more thing I thought of. It's a problem with all white flowers that they tend to show less detail/texture than colored flowers due to the white light washing out the detail. So you might find that white flowers tend to score lower than colored ones for this reason (possibly also just because people like colors...)